


Happier With You

by BlueClue182



Series: STRANGER ANGST [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: 500 Words Challenge, F/M, Light Angst, Nancy and Jonathan are mentioned, but they're not technically in it?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 13:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19928734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueClue182/pseuds/BlueClue182
Summary: Steve does some thinking.Past Stancy. Current lonely Scoops employee. Somewhere between seasons 2 and 3.





	Happier With You

**Author's Note:**

> I saved this to my desktop as "Single Scoop" and I hate myself.  
> Inspired by this Tumblr post: https://tmblr.co/ZNPvTy2Y5D7t1

“Isn’t it time we both stopped pretending we make each other happy?”

  
The woman on tv may as well have called her lover ‘bullshit’ for all the line stung. It had been months since Nancy—well, no, Nancy hadn’t really done anything wrong. Sure, it hurt like hell that she not only left him but left him for Jonathan Byers of all people. He guessed it was better than if she’d left him for someone he had a lot in common with. At least this way he didn’t have to take it personally. Not all that personally.

Did she make him happy? That was the trick, wasn’t it? They were happy together, weren’t they? He hadn’t imagined it, had he?  
Steve groaned and turned off the television. Midday soap operas should be an escape from the world, an overly dramatized satirization of…things. They shouldn’t make him feel pangs of regret and sadness. They shouldn’t remind him how lonely he’d become.  
He rolled over on his bed, reaching for his clock even though he knew damn well what time it was based on the tv schedule. Maybe he’d head in to work early. He could stop at Sam Goody and pick up the Tears for Fears cassette he’d be eyeing for months, the one he hadn’t bought because his dad had Some Issues with the band. Didn’t Tina work at Sam Goody? Yeah but she was headed out to college at the end of the summer. Maybe she’d still want to go out? Sure. But did he? Nah. Probably not. Not with Tina.

He could drive around the parking lot burning up gas and praying Tommy H wasn’t there. Why was he always praying someone wouldn’t be where he was these days? After interviewing with like six or seven (ten? He’d lost count) different places, he’d landed the Scoops job. And then they handed him that uniform, folded and pressed inside the crinkliest cellophane wrapping he’d ever experienced. He was happy to have the job but proud was pushing it a little. Sure, the money was nice but he dreaded every time that bell rang while he was in back.  
“I’m not just going to hand you a job, son.” his father lectured, not 24 hours after his high school graduation ceremony. “You’ll have to find something yourself. And find something with dignity, will you? No costumes or spatulas.” A uniform is different from a costume, he reasoned. And a scooper is not a spatula. And anyway he couldn’t get a job anywhere else. He’d tried.  
Henderson wasn’t even in town for another two weeks, and Steve wouldn’t let himself finish that thought because if he missed Henderson then he was really scraping the bottom of the barrel. He loved the kid—he loved all the kids—but not only were they way too young to consider them “friends”, they were also collectively a nagging reminder of his major failure.

  
_Isn’t it time I stopped pretending I ever made you happy?_


End file.
